Hill gets reward for ringing changes at Richmond

second-half tries in six minutes gave Richmond their first home win this season and their first in the British and Irish Cup, avenging last week’s heavy 40-point defeat.

Three tries by wing Alastair Chisholm, centre Toby Quarendon and flanker Tom Sargeant set the Athletic Ground crowd alight and gave director of rugby Steve Hill a lot of positives.

He said: “We knew we had a lot to put right after our loss to Nottingham last week but we played exceptionally well, and four changes were key.

“We only trained once this week and I said that I wanted a performance, which is what we got through being much better in the first phase and getTWO ting a platform to work from.”

Richmond started on the front foot and after ten minutes were rewarded when Nottingham conceded a penalty for obstruction, which Chisholm kicked.

Five minutes later Nottingham won a line-out on Richmond’s five metre line, which saw the Green and Whites’ wing David Williams pop up on the blind side for a try.

Six minutes later Nottingham used a mix of their tidy set-piece and expansive backs to get a second, with the line-out leading to centre Vili Hakalo providing an inside offload for scrum-half Murray McConnell to go under the posts.

The Green and Whites continued to pin Richmond in their own half, but the

home-side’s defence held. A quick ball from a scrum in Richmond’s own half went out to Alastair Chisholm, who found the eye in Nottingham’s needle before running 50 metres to score in the corner.

Richmond’s performance went up a gear after half-time and a turnover by No.8 Harison Edwards led to full-back Jordan Simpson-Hefft and centre Jonathan Woodward chasing down a box-kick before Woodward’s long pass found Quarendon, who went over.

Then Quarendon intercepted a Nottingham pass, leading to captain Sargeant scoring in the corner.

Nottingham head-coach Ian Costello said: “That is the worst execution and clinical edge I have seen from the boys all season.”